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By Iver Pound
- The Arteta revolution. How Arsenal moved from 15th to 2nd in the PL
- Arsenal top of the league after the next round of games!
We’ve been having a debate within Untold about how much clubs have spent on players in recent years and what have they got out of it – and indeed how this compares with others
On 20 December 2019, Arteta was appointed head coach so we decided to look at net expenditure from the summer of 2020 onward using Transfermarkt as the data source.
Now I know that when we have done this sort of thing before, a Manchester City fan has written in each time saying all our figures are wrong because Transfermarkt is a discredited source. He then quoted an alternative array of figures, which it took us a while to trace back, but found they came from the Manchester Evening News which when it deals in football, uses figures no one else seems to use. So we’re sticking with Transfermarkt as it still seems to us to be the most comprehensive and reliable source of transfer information over time, taking all the Premier League into account.
The table below shows the 10 top spenders from 2020/21 through to and including the window of summer 2023. I have added each club’s current league position in the final column. Leeds are of course spending some time in the Championship at the moment, taking in the scenery, that sort of thing.
| # | Club | Spend | Arrivals | Income | Departures | Balance | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | €1.44bn | 108 | €540.89m | 97 | €-897.91m | 11 |
| 2 | Manchester U | €675.78m | 72 | €129.59m | 70 | €-546.19m | 10 |
| 3 | Arsenal | €680.24m | 71 | €142.25m | 69 | €-537.99m | 2 |
| 4 | Newcastle U | €508.05m | 56 | €58.93m | 53 | €-449.12m | 8 |
| 5 | Tottenham H | €632.90m | 66 | €208.87m | 57 | €-424.03m | 1 |
| 6 | Liverpool | €480.35m | 51 | €188.15m | 48 | €-292.20m | 4 |
| 7 | Manchester C | €708.40m | 98 | €434.47m | 90 | €-273.93m | 3 |
| 8 | Nottingham F | €339.43m | 120 | €86.45m | 107 | €-252.99m | 13 |
| 9 | Leeds U | €376.14m | 79 | €146.33m | 71 | €-229.81m | 5* |
| 10 | West Ham U | €453.26m | 50 | €227.60m | 45 | €-225.67m | 7 |
So we can see that the clubs placed 5th (Aston Villa) and 6th (Brighton and Hove) in the league at the moment are not in this expenditure chart. If we continued it down, Villa would be 11th in the net spend table and Brighton and Hove Albion 26th, the latter having made a profit of £125m on their transfers over this period. Everton are the only other team to have made a profit and stayed in the Premier League during the years we are looking at.
That Brighton achievement is certainly very unusual… either they have discovered the way to turn being a Premier League club into a profit-making business, or their chairman (who is a professional gambler) has the most amazing luck. And whatever they have been doing, I think a lot of clubs (such as Leeds United and Nottingham Forest) ought to be studying that method.
We can also take from this table the fact that just buying players by the dozen (or even gross) isn’t necessarily very clever. Four clubs have actually brought in over 100 players during this short period (honest – over 100!!!)
- Nottingham Forest: 120 players arrived 107 players departed
- Chelsea: 108 players arrived 97 players departed
- Brighton and Hove Albion: 108 players arrived 96 players departed
- Watford: 107 players arrived 111 players departed
- Wolverhampton Wanders: 103 players arrived 97 players departed
These are phenomenal numbers and I must admit that before I started looking at this issue I had no idea that the numbers could be this high. Arsenal’s numbers are 71 arrivals and 69 departures.
While we can say that the figures of the clubs above look like operations made as a panic response to a time of failure, we also have to note that Manchester City’s numbers are 98 players in and 90 players out.
Arsenal in fact are 13th in terms of the number of players arriving with 71 in (and 69 out). The lowest dealer in players is Crystal Palace with 46 in and 42 out.
So from this, we can see that Nottingham Forest have been dealing in players at about three times the rate as Crystal Palace. Palace are ninth in the league and Forest 13th.
Trying to pull all this together we can see that over the period we are studying here only six clubs have made a profit on their transfers. Four of those (Watford, Leicester, Norwich and Southampton) are no longer in the Premier League, and the other two are placed sixth (Brighton) and 16th (Everton).
So where are Arsenal in all this player turmoil?
Arsenal during the period we are studying (which is in effect Arteta’s period as manager) have been the third highest spenders (Chelsea are top with £1.44bn spent, Manchester City second spending £708m and Arsenal third, on £680m. Tottenham, if you are interested, are fifth on £632,).
Chelsea have brought in over half as many players again as Arsenal during this time, and have sold 40% more players than Arsenal. Six clubs made a profit on players during this period, but all of them except Brighton and Everton have bid farewell to the Premier League.
If there is not already a huge team of researchers trying to work out how Brighton have done it, I suspect there will be very soon. If it is not luck, but brilliant judgment, the most valuable people in the Premier League at the moment must be the Brighton transfer team. Or the club’s owner!
Our net spend should gradually decline in the next couple of years and we’ll still have a young team. Smart!
mike in Atlanta
“Our net spend should gradually decline in the next couple of years and we’ll still have a young team. Smart!”
It should indeed, and contributes to one of the factors you have to take in to account when arguing whether mega spending does or doesn’t achieve success.
As the above table shows all the top five have spent fortunes over the last 3 years and have won almost nothing. Certainly none have won the 2 biggies, namely the Premiership or the Champions league. So, at this point it can be argued spending big doesn’t work.
But even now, I’m not sure that entirely true? That enormous spending has taken us from out of the top 4 to challenging for the title. Spurs are top, all be it a false position I believe, but still, they are where they are.
Newcastle look poised to become a genuine top 4, if not title contender.
Arguably important gains on the back of mega spending?
The 2 stand outs are obviously Man Utd and Chelsea, who have spent fortunes to, at best, stagnate.
But here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter what you spend if others are also spending similar amounts AND running their club better, you wont succeed. It seems to me both of those 2 clubs have lost their way, AT THE MOMENT. But who knows what might happen if they suddenly get those other ingredients right? They may poach Arteta? Pep? Klopp, then what?
One thing is for sure, if they stop spending they have ZERO chance of reaching the top.
And here’s the point relating to what you said Mike. Hopefully, over the next few years our Nett spend will drop enormously as Arteta finally has HIS squad sorted. He may tweak here and there, but even so, given the quality he know has to trade with Nett spend should remain low for a while at least.
So, lets assume it does, and lets assume this squad goes on to win the PL, say next season, and develops further, and goes on to win the CL in a couple of years.
We will of done that over a period where we may well of actually spent very little. Does that then mean NOT spending is what won us those trophies? No it doesn’t. What will of won us those trophies is the enormous spending, or ground work if you like, that Arteta and Edu have done these last few years.
Without the enormous spending we have been witnessing we would NEVER of got into a position to challenge for the PL let alone the CL in the first place.
The fact is there are so many ‘mega’ spenders now, that that alone isn’t enough. But you can have one of the best mangers in the World, and run your club brilliant, like Brighton for example, and you will do well, in fact brilliantly, but you will NOT win either the PL or the CL.
As shown above, spending enormous amounts of money is no guarantee of bagging the big 2. Not doing so is a guarantee that you wont.